This invention relates to a recreational flying vehicle and, in particular, to an airborne vehicle which achieves flight from a motorized surface vehicle that tows or pushes the airborne vehicle.
Many people yearn to pilot an airplane, but several constraints, such as handling, safety and cost, prevent them from doing so. Several prior art vehicles attempt to make flight easy and safe by combining motorized surface vehicles with airborne vehicles. Examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,825,363 (Robertson); U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,785 (Thompson); U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,125 (Welsh et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,706 (Miller); and U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,487 (Bede). These patents all disclose airborne vehicles attached to surface vehicles in ways making them relatively difficult to control. In the vehicles described in most of these patents, the angle of attack of the wing can be varied at will and can inadvertently become highly negative, such as in FIG. 3 of Robertson. Uncontrolled variance in the angle of attack can cause loss of control and lead to an accident. While the Thompson patent attempts to control the angle of attack of a wing by pivotally mounting the wing with respect to the fuselage, this connection between the surface vehicle and the airborne vehicle does not solve the control problem. In sum, these patents describe vehicles with inadequate control of the wing because of failure to control the angle of attack of the wing as it rises with vehicle speed or descends as the vehicle slows.
The vehicles described in most of these patents take off and land from either the ground or water and, therefore, experience high relative velocities with respect to the take-off and landing surface.
Some of these patents also disclose various control systems for steering the flying vehicle, operating the flaps, and changing speed. Generally, either an operator of the surface vehicle steers or the pilot steers by controlling the flying vehicle. Where the operator of the surface vehicle steers, the pilot cannot experience a sensation of control; the pilot cannot even use the flying vehicle unless someone operates the surface vehicle.